Well I think that someone did a lot of research to put that together.
Fuel formulation (chemistry) has been a mystery for as long as I can recall. I worked for S O Western (Chevron Inc. today) for many years and was a Chevron Dealer(1968-70)as well.
Remember F-310??
Their (Oil Co.) pitch always was; "the higher the 'octane rating' the slower & more completly it burns" therefore; the more power you can get. This inferred that it had more lead (tetraethel) etc. However (in reality) the fuel formula(s) varied with the climate/tempature and geography.
In the 50s we would 'gas up' at the beach and race at 3000'. Av-Gas was hard to get unless you had a friend that was a pilot. Most of it was stolen & had a different color. You didn't want to get caught with it, so it was just used for one race only so there wouldn't be any proof.
When the 1957 Ford 312" V-8 first came out, it would ping on regular. Rather than turn the timing back we told customers to put 5 gal 'Ethel' in first then fill with 'Regular'. It worked on every one till 'regular' reached the "higher" level around 59. Union 76 was 76 octane when it first came out around 1949.
This was all long before the EPA was created and got involved. Shortly after; there was a NEW octane rating system for automotive fuel.
We all know what happened next.
BTW: Standard Oil aka Chevron makes and sells fertalizer too. When E-85 'gets going', "the Camel's foot's in the tent".
